Always
by Pixie Child
Summary: "It's happening to me too, isn't it?"


**Pairing**: Jo & Jack friendship; mentions of canon Jo/Zane and Jack/Tess but not really.  
**Timeline**: 4.03 - All the Rage (dialog from the episode)  
**A/N1**: This is the first of two 4.03 tag fics (and, by the way, what the hell does 'tag' actually mean in this context?) because, as enmuse suggested (and serene_quill encouraged), fix-its seem to be the way to handle this exciting and new hellscape that is Eureka 2.0  
**A/N2**: I seem to be writing a lot more narrative fics based around canon dialog lately. It's weird. But I don't feel _too_ bad about it because if they can make _books_ like that ("Novelizations" of episodes, granted I don't know if Eureka has any) then at least this way I'm not _charging_ people for it.  
**Written for**: eureka_tag LJ  
**Feedback**: is a must!  
**Disclaimer**: Not mine. I play with other people's toys.  
**First Posted**: July 27, 2010

* * *

"What can go wrong next?" Jo hears Tess ask sarcastically over the walkie-talkie. She's about to _scream_ at the woman to _shut up_ unless she has something constructive to say when the banging gets louder. Closer.

The doors to the med lab suddenly open about half a foot and the infected are trying to force their way in. Lupo's vision goes red for a second as she considers the different ways she can kill Zane before the bob gets to them, but thankfully, her head clears before she can act on it.

The head of GD Security pulls out her handcuffs, her hands shaking so badly it takes her an extra few seconds to get them open.

"Carter? Carter, they're getting in!" Dr. Blake yells, her voice sounding muffled to Lupo. "Jo!" The young woman goes to the more secure pillar in the room. "Jo? Jo!" She bites her lip once, hard, using the pain to clear her head so she can focus on what she's doing. She hears herself give a tiny grunt in pain and suddenly she's angry about that, too. "Why are you-" Allison trails of just before she gets the cuffs secure. When the doctor realises what she's doing, Jo looks up at her pleadingly before pointedly looking away. She doesn't want the older woman to tell her to hold on, to ask her to keep fighting it. Jo's had to stop herself from killing people more times today then she's ever had to in the rest of her life, and it's getting harder. She can't do it anymore. Even if the angry mob gets her, it'll still be better than if she lets this damn thing of Zane's take control. "We lost Jo." Allison tells whoever is on the other end of the radio. And even through the anger surging inside her, she feels herself begin to cry softly from sorrow rather than rage, but by this point she's too far gone to really care either way.

.-.

Finally having been given the all clear from Dr. Blake, Jo stands next to Carter in the foyer of GD. "Three," Jo begins counting, slowly spinning in a circle, "Two, One." And just like magic, the lights turn on.

"Much better."

"Clean-up's almost done; all the labs are pitching in." She tells him, "By tomorrow morning, you'd never know we had a full-blown insurrection."

"Great. Because I can't avoid going home any longer." Carter teases and Lupo smiles despite herself. He nudges his shoulder against hers. "You were great today." He tells her and she allows herself a moment of pride. In this timeline, he may not be her boss, but she has a feeling she'll always feel like his deputy. It's not a bad feeling. "How you kept it under control, even with Zane. That was..."

"I couldn't have done it without you, Carter," she responds as though she was the one who saved the day, "And years of Special Forces training." She adds as an afterthought. It's weird, even with all the time she served under Sheriff Cobb, she always thought of herself as a Ranger first and foremost, but after just four years with Cater, she's a citizen of Eureka and her time in the Forces is a part of her past.

"Well," he mumbles almost bashfully and she knows he knows, or at least senses, what she was thinking. "Hey, um, what you said about my thinking I know how to do your job..." And the warm glow of pride from his compliments is overshadowed by her guilt of what she said to him earlier.

"It's fine." It's not; not because what she said was true, only because she knows it must have hurt his feelings. "I wasn't myself." She stops walking as she says it and makes sure to make eye contact before shaking her head slowly.

"Well, just if, uh..." He stutters and she looks down. Every time they get affected by something mind-altering, she says something along the lines of her being his lackey. It's not because she believes it, because she knows him better than that. She says it because she knows it'll hurt him and she is a _mean_ under-the-unknown-sample-influence. "If that's what you think, I'm sorry." She glances down again, ashamed that she got to him this much. "If I stepped on your toes, it's just because... I miss you. I miss my deputy." They both suck at the emotional stuff, but she'll be damned if she doesn't admit to herself that this conversation isn't affecting her.

"Wow." She smiles at him shyly. "We make a good team. Always will."

"Yeah." He walks ahead, the moment clearly affecting him as well. "So," he says, grinning childishly, "You gonna apologise for pulling a gun on me?"

"No." She drawls as he chuckles, "You had that coming."

"I think I know someone who might agree with you." Jo huffs in amusement, but her heart goes out to him. Even though he didn't explicitly say, they know each other well enough that she knows he's talking about Tess.

She lets the mood get a little more serious as she replies, "Good luck."

Jack's clearly already lost in thought about what he's going to say to Tess because he doesn't even bother a wave in reply. As she watches him go, her heart aches for the woman. She knows what it's like to be involved with a man who doesn't really know you and she wouldn't wish that on anyone, ever. But it's for the best. Even though they have to fake it, there are some things they _can't_ fake. And being in love (or not in love) with someone is one of those things.


End file.
